The obvious question is where does the money come from to fly all the players from Australia and NZ to the Pacific come from??
Great concept though.
Where does the money ever come from? The Australian PMXIII somehow came up with the money to fly to Fiji.
The Tri-Nations was great. It should be the standard for what we want our international comps to look like. We should be looking at 6-7 week tournaments/tours, not 2-3 weeks. However, it is too limiting. The Four Nations was as well, despite both comps being better than what we have this year.
Many people called for the end of the Four Nations as the tier 2 teams didn't get enough games. It was good for 1 tier 2 team per year but the others got f**k all.
We need to be looking at extended tournaments, extended tours, regional tournaments, mid-year 3 test series, full Pacific and European Cups etc. We can't go backwards now.
A normal 4-year cycle should be able to fit in at least one each of these:
- World Cup
- Expanded World Cup Qualifying involving more teams from South America, Africa, Asia, Europe and the Pacific.
- Federations Cup. 8-team tournament, 2 pools of 4 plus final.
- Euro Six Nations. England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Wales, Italy
- Pacific Six Nations. NZ, Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, PNG, Cook Islands.
- Trans-Tasman Test Series.
- Ashes Series (Kangaroo Tour 1 cycle, Lions Tour the next)
- Pacific Cup. Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, PNG, Cook Islands + Qualifier
- European Cup. France, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Italy + Qualifier.
Plus once every 8 years:
- Lions Tour. 3-test Ashes series + tests v NZ, Tonga, Samoa, PNG, Fiji or Lebanon
- Kangaroo Tour. 3-test Ashes series + tests v NZ, France, Ireland, Scotland, Wales.
- Kiwi Tour. 3-test Baskerville Shield series + tests v Australia, France, Ireland, Scotland, Wales.
But ah too hard. Let's just have Aus v NZ once a year and give the others a couple pity games at Leichhardt and call it a day.
